Dancer Music

Choreography and Concert Dance DancerMusic Exclusive PRE-View

PRE-View: The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago Presents Bebe Miller Company’s “In A Rhythm”

April 4, 2018 Kristi Licera

Bebe Miller's "In A Rhythm", will be performed by Bebe Miller Company April 5,6, & 7 at the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago. The Company's performances mark the end of the Process v. Product Festival, which invited "choreographers, dancers, students of dance and audiences to consider and reflect on ideas around how and why the creation, practice and witness of dancing can be more than a product for spectators." DancerMusic's Kristi Licera caught up with Bebe to find out more about "In A Rhythm", as well as more about the importance of sharing the creative process. Read on to see why Bebe Miller Company is the perfect fit for the end of this festival:

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Taylor Mitchell (center) and The Big Muddy Dance Company (Photo courtesy of Taylor Mitchell)

Choreography and Concert Dance

5 Questions With Taylor Mitchell About Red Beans and Big Muddy Dance

April 4, 2018 Johnny Nevin

There are a lot of stories in this story. There's a story about being a choreographer -- how to become one, and what it's like to be one. Taylor Mitchell is unusually eloquent in his movement vocabulary, and just as much so in sharing his always-carefully-constructed perspective, so when we heard that his first major professional dance work, Red Beans and Rice-ly Yours was also going to be his most recent dance work, we thought it would be a good time to hear more about his journey. There's another story in this story about being a dance company. The Big Muddy Dance Company in St. Louis is performing Meet Me In ... (on Friday, April 6 at 8pm and Saturday, April 7 at 2pm) at St. Louis' Grandel Theatre. Meet Me In ... is about Big Muddy's hometown of St. Louis, about its roots and heritage and its great icons. It's a program that will include work by Artistic Director Brian Enos, world-renowned choreographer Robyn Mineko Williams, company dancer Robert Poe, and Taylor Mitchell, which gets us back to that first story.

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Choreography and Concert Dance

5 Questions with Heather Hartley About See Chicago Dance

April 3, 2018 Johnny Nevin

Everybody knows that behind the stage, there's a completely different world called backstage, where all kinds of professionals do all kinds of work to make what happens on stage be the best it can possibly be. In the multifaceted universe of Chicago dance, there's another scene behind the scene backstage, where other professionals do all kinds of other work to help the Chicago dance scene be the best it can be. One of the most noteworthy of these back of backstage scenes is See Chicago Dance. Heather Hartley is the Executive Director of See Chicago Dance, and we asked her to give us a better understanding about some of the many things that make this organization so valuable and so unique. It makes for a fascinating set of stories -- there's a lot happening in this scene behind the scene. Here's what Heather told us:

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Choreography and Concert Dance

5 Questions With Kevin O’Day About “A Fine Line”

April 2, 2018 Johnny Nevin

On Saturday, April 7, the audience for Visceral Dance Chicago's SpringFive performance will see choreographer Kevin O'Day's latest work, the World Premier of "A Fine Line", and there wasn't much time between when (a) we heard about this and (b) we knew we wanted to hear more about this. So we reached out to Kevin and learned all kinds of interesting things about "A Fine Line", about working with Visceral, and about Kevin O'Day's rich and humane understanding of the art of dance, and for that matter, the art of understanding. Here's what he told us:

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DanceWorks Chicago dancers in rehearsal for Manuel Vignoulle's "I Am ..." (Photo by Joseph A. Hernandez)

Choreography and Concert Dance

5 Questions With Manuel Vignoulle About Dance and Identity

March 21, 2018 Johnny Nevin

Manuel Vignoulle's ability to create intensely engaging choreography is something that a lot of people in the dance world have known about for a while now. Not surprisingly though, his choreography gets even more attention now, because last November, his work Black and White was awarded the 2017 Choreography Festival Grand Prize Award at the McCallum Theatre Choreography Festival.

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Choreography and Concert Dance

5 Questions With Shannon Alvis About Dancing and Making Dances

March 21, 2018 Melissa Panetta

When it comes to dance, Shannon Alvis has pretty much done it all! Not only has she danced with two of the most renowned companies in the world - Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (HSDC) and Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT), she was also a recipient of the Joffrey Ballet’s Winning Work’s Choreographic Competition in 2017. I got the chance to chat with Shannon about some of her most pivotal moments in her career as well as what she is working on next. Here is what she told us:

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Alejandro Cerrudo. Photo by Jim Newberry

Choreography and Concert Dance

PRE-View: Hubbard Street’s Spring Series – 10 Years and 2 Nights of Alejandro Cerrudo’s Choreography

March 19, 2018 Johnny Nevin

There are so many interwoven dimensions to Alejandro Cerrudo's creativity that we just knew we had to get a better look at them. One way to do that would be to go see Hubbard Street Dance Chicago's "An Evening of Alejandro Cerrudo" at Chicago's Auditorium Theatre, and the other, while we're waiting to do that, would be to ask Alejandro to tell us a little more about what we'll see. Here's what he told us:

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Choreography and Concert Dance DancerMusic Exclusive

5 Questions with Joshua Blake Carter on Giordano Dance Chicago’s 55th Anniversary Concert

March 17, 2018 Kristi Licera

On March 23 & 24, the dancers of GDC will grace the stage at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Chicago to celebrate 55 years of legacy and innovation. Among the works being presented is the world premiere of Take a Gambol, choreographed by former company member and current Operations Manager and Giordano II Director, Joshua Blake Carter. DancerMusic's Kristi Licera asked Joshua about his journey through Giordano, as well as the creative process behind his new work. Read on to learn more about Joshua and how he is weaving his thread into the fabric of American jazz dance:

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Evanston Dance Ensemble's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (Photo by Matt Glavin)

Choreography and Concert Dance Music Music for Choreography PRE-View

PRE-View: Evanston Dance Ensemble Presents “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”

March 9, 2018 Johnny Nevin

This March, the Evanston Dance Ensemble will premiere its completely reimagined production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. In six performances over four days (March 15-16 at 7pm and March 17-18 at 1pm and 4pm) audiences at The Josephine Louis Theater will get to see Shakespeare's widely loved romantic comedy in a brand new light. We asked Evanston Dance Ensemble's Béa Rashid to tell us just a little more about this complex creative adventure, beginning with how she even got such a bold idea. Here's what Béa told us:

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Choreography and Concert Dance DancerMusic Exclusive

5 Questions with Krissie Odegard Geye on Trifecta Dance Collective’s ‘In.Grained’

March 6, 2018 Kristi Licera

Through Trifecta Dance Collective's latest full-length work, "In.grained", Co-Artistic Directors of Krissie Odegard Geye and Carrie Patterson along with the dancers of TDC engage with five senior women from the Glenview area to create dance with the power to transcend generations. DancerMusic's Kristi Licera sat down with Krissie Odegard Geye to learn more about "In.grained", its roots, and the incredible women they are collaborating with:

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